New from Cambridge University Press!

Sociolinguistics from the Periphery "presents a fascinating book about change: shifting political, economic and cultural conditions; ephemeral, sometimes even seasonal, multilingualism; and altered imaginaries for minority and indigenous languages and their users."

This is the introductory volume to the first dictionary on the etymologicalrelations between ancient Egyptian and other Afro-Asiatic languages.Gábor Takács’ new multi-volume Etymological Dictionary of Egyptian (now toappear at regular intervals of about 12-18 months) will be a hallmark inEgyptian and Afro-Asiatic linguistics. The amount of material offered, theextensive treatment of scholarly discussions on each item, and the insightsinto the connections of Egyptian with its related Afro-Asiatic languages,including many new lexical parallels, will make it an indispensable toolfor comparative and interpretative purposes and the unchallenged startingpoint for every linguist in the field.

Volume 1, the opening volume of the dictionary, can rightly be called thekey to the work; it not only provides the users with a comprehensiveanalysis of the Afro-Asiatic background of the Egyptian consonant system,but also offers a critical appraisal of linguistic theories on Egyptianhistorical phonology, the problems surrounding the origins of the Egyptianlanguage, and an extensive bibliography to the dictionary volumes to appear.